Muppet Babies

Overview

The Muppet Babies live in a large nursery watched over by Nanny, who is seen only from the shoulders down. The babies' imaginary games transition from the nursery into scenes that become "real" to the babies, such as finding themselves aboard a pirate ship or in the land of Oz. Often these fantasies are filled with stock footage scenes or live-action clips from popular movies such as Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and Indiana Jones. Each episode contains a related musical number. When the pretend game becomes too perilous, or when an interruption occurs (often in the form of Nanny checking in or the imaginary game straying too far from its original premise), the scene dissolves and they find themselves in the nursery once more.

The central idea of each episode is the power of imagination. Sometimes the babies use their imagination to solve a problem (when Nanny's newspaper is accidentally ruined, the babies write their own newspaper to replace it), but occasionally their imaginations run away with them (overhearing Nanny's phone call to the garbage collector (to help her decide which armchair to donate to charity) leads the babies to fear that Fozzie is going to be thrown away). Other frequent themes involve the babies coming up with new ways to play with old toys, imagining what life will be like when they are adults, or facing common childhood firsts such as a visit to the dentist or a new addition to the family. Nanny is the voice of reason, congratulating them on their creativity or soothing their fears.

Characters

The series stars Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Scooter, Skeeter, Rowlf the Dog, and Gonzo as the main muppets. Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker made regular appearances as did Camilla in the form of Gonzo's stuffed baby chick. In the final two seasons, Bean Bunny and Statler and Waldorf began making regular appearances.

Several Muppets made guest appearances including Janice as an older preteen, and Kermit's nephew, Robin, a young tadpole.

The Muppet Baby character Skeeter, Scooter's twin sister, only appeared in this series, and was never a live-action Muppet. This was done because the producers wanted another female character added to the cast. Despite this, Skeeter was always voiced by a male actor (first Howie Mandel, and later Frank Welker).

Cast

Additional voices and performances

Crew

Production history

In 1984, The Muppets Take Manhattan, the third full-length Muppet film, debuted. The film included a fantasy sequence in which Miss Piggy imagined what growing up with Kermit would have been like. While Piggy sang, baby versions of Rowlf, Fozzie, Scooter, and Gonzo acted as backup singers. The live-action sequence was so popular that The Jim Henson Company turned the idea into a half-hour cartoon program. In order for 107 episodes to be produced, Henson and Marvel hired two companies: the Japanese-based Toei Animation for Seasons 1–3 and five episodes of Season 4, and the Korean-based AKOM Productions for Episode six of Season 4 through Season 7, both of which also animated G.I. Joe and The Transformers for Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions.

Muppet Babies proved highly popular and ran on CBS from 1984 to 1991, a total of seven seasons. At the height of its popularity it ran in two or three episode blocks. Even after the conclusion of the series, it had remained so popular that CBS continued to air reruns of the series until the fall of 1992.

For a brief run in the second season, the program became Muppets, Babies & Monsters, and a second half-hour was dedicated to a new show called Jim Henson's Little Muppet Monsters. This show featured live action puppets and cartoons starring the adult Muppet characters. The program lasted three weeks before Jim Henson pulled the plug, despite 18 episodes having been made. The show then reverted to an hour of Muppet Babies; however, a portion of the Little Muppet Monsters theme could still be heard in the show's end credits for the remainder of its run. Muppet Babies later expanded to 90 minutes after CBS pulled The Garbage Pail Kids before it even aired due to controversy.

It is noted for starting a trend of relaunching popular cartoon characters as younger versions of themselves. This trend can be seen in numerous TV series such as A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, The Flintstone Kids, Baby Felix, Tiny Toon Adventures (the main characters actually are parodies of the Looney Tunes. The Looney Tunes themselves are their instructors), Tom and Jerry Kids and Jungle Cubs (based on characters from Walt Disney's animated film The Jungle Book) as well as merchandise items such as Baby Snoopy, Baby (Betty) Boop, Disney Babies, Baby Hello Kitty, Care Bear Cubs, and Baby Garfield. In recent years, Baby Looney Tunes, Sesame Beginnings and Baby Mario continued the concept. The show was a critical success during its time on the air: the show won four consecutive Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Animated Program, 1985–88, and won a Humanitas Prize for Children's Animation in 1985.

Muppet Babies was voted "Top Cartoon of the Childhood Days" by the Irvin Hall newspaper's weekly review of the Pennsylvania State University in 2007.

Syndication

The series entered local syndication in 1989, and ran until 1992. Syndication rights were sold to Nickelodeon (1992–1999) and Odyssey Network (1999–2000).

Music

Approximately 100 of the songs were co-written by Alan O'Day and Janis Liebhart, with the exception of the theme song and "Rocket To The Stars" which were written by Hank Saroyan and Rob Walsh, and Dream for Your Inspiration, written by Scott Brownlee. The song that played during the end credits was laughingly titled "Hank in the Box" in deference to Hank Saroyan.

Merchandise

In the mid-1980s PVC Muppet Babies toys were available as prizes in McDonald's' Happy Meals. Each non-articulated character came with a wheeled vehicle. Some time later, special Christmas stuffed versions of the Muppet Babies were available in Happy Meals, too.

In 1992, after the last aired Muppet Babies episode in 1991, an episode book collection of Muppet Babies was produced from the book company Grolier. It was called The Muppet Babies Press Books. The book talked mostly about character traits and learning for young children. It was produced and ended in 1992.

There were two Muppet Babies LP records produced and released on Parker Bros./Columbia records. Both albums were produced by Hank Saroyan and Rob Walsh and featured extended versions of songs from certain Muppet Babies episodes. The first album, "Rocket To The Stars" was also a fully produced stereo story-adventure starring the Muppet Babies characters in which the songs were woven into the all new story written by Saroyan. The second album was strictly more fully produced longer versions of songs from the show.

BMG released a CD version of the first album when it bought Henson. The CD was renamed "Rock It To The Stars", likely due to Parker Bros./Columbia records owning the name "Rocket to the Stars".

Songs—Rocket To The Stars: Muppet Babies theme, Merry-G0-Round, Sleep Rockin', Dream For Your Inspiration, Good Things Happen in the Dark, Camilla, Rocket To The Stars, Practice Makes Perfect, Be What You Wanna Be, I Can't Help Being a Star, Closing Theme.

A second, music only Muppet Babies LP, "Music Is Everywhere" was also produced.

Songs: (side one) Music Is Everywhere, Table For One, Wocka Wocka Wocka, Snow White Blues, Wishes Have A Way, Best Friends, Runnin' Out Of Time (side two) We Love Cartoons, Show Us The Real You. Amadogus, Semi-Weirdo, Art Is For Your Heart, Playin' In The City, TV Maniacs.

Comics

From 1985 until 1989, Marvel Comics produced a monthly comic book of the Muppet Babies with their Star Comics imprint, drawn by Marie Severin. The series lasted for twenty-six issues. The back-up stories on the last two issues, #25 (May 1989) and #26 (July 1989), were drawn by Nate Butler. In 1992, Harvey Comics acquired the rights to produce Muppet Babies comics and produced a further 3 issues (restarting at issue #1).

The Muppet Babies also appeared in Star Comics Digest (also known as Star Comics Magazine). This comic was printed in digest size format, and features a number of reprinted short stories in each issue. The series itself lasted for thirteen issues from 1986 until 1988. It should be noted that the Muppet Babies appeared in some, but not all the issues. Other short stories contained in Star Comics Digest included Madballs, Heathcliff, the Care Bears, and Top Dog.

Home media releases

Although not every Muppet Babies episode was released on VHS, a number of them were released between 1993 and 1995. One series released on VHS called "Yes I Can" included three videos, which featured two Muppet Babies episodes inside. The series focused on Robin the Frog, who asks his uncle Kermit for assistance in different chores he was struggling with such as cleaning his room or doing homework. Kermit would lead off into a Muppet Babies episode which told of a similar situation. Sometimes, he would give examples about achieving Robin's trouble. For example, in one Yes I Can video, Robin is worried about making new friends, and Kermit tells him that sharing is an example of having a good friendship, which leads directly to a Muppet Babies episode.

There have been no plans announced of any DVD releases of Muppet Babies. One possible reason is that clips from other TV shows and movies (such as Star Trek, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, "The $25,000 Pyramid", Raiders of the Lost Ark and *batteries not included) were used extensively in imagination sequences, closet opening scenes, and scenes on the TV in the nursery and thus could pose difficulties in terms of resolving possible copyright issues. Recently, a few episodes were made available, in uncut form, as bonus DVDs with Muppet Babies plush toys.

Distribution

VHS release

There are 18 VHS releases in all

U.S. 1st Releases (4):

'U.S. 2nd releases 'Yes I Can' Release (3):

McDonald's Releases (4):

Video Buddy Interactive Releases (3)

UK Releases (2) (works on any VCR):

Episode 109: Close Encounters of the Frog Kind Episode 102: Dental Hyjinks

Episode 110: Gonzo's Video Show Episode 101: Noisy Neighbors

Australia Releases (2) (works on any VCR):

Episode 207: I Want My Muppet TV! Episode 206: Snow White and the Seven Muppets Episode 201: Once Upon an Egg Timer

Episode 104: Raiders of the Lost Muppet Episode 102: Dental Hyjinks

Total 25 VHS Release Episodes in order:

Other appearances

Baby Kermit, Piggy, and Gonzo made small appearances in the drug prevention TV special (later released on home video) Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. When the rest of the characters met the cats, Murray Hare, and the rest of the characters that they sang from Jefferson Starship and more of the songs from Muppet Babies - Out of this Rockin' Town World.

A live-action version of all the characters except Skeeter also appeared in A Muppet Family Christmas in the form of a home movie, which the adult Muppets watched during the Christmas Party. The segment was cut out of the home video releases because the rights to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" could not be obtained.

Skeeter in her adult form was featured in the "Family Reunions" issues of The Muppet Show comics.

Reception

In January 2009, IGN named Jim Henson's Muppet Babies as the 31st best in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows.

Awards and nominations

Reboot

A reboot of the series is currently in development and is scheduled to premiere on Disney Junior in 2018. As opposed to the traditional animation of the original show the reboot will instead use CGI, but still will be targeted to children ages 4–7 with each episode consisting of 2 11-minute stories. Disney Junior, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media’s Content & Media group, and The Muppets Studio are co-producing the show. Tom Warburton will serve as the executive producer while former SpongeBob SquarePants writer, Eric Shaw will serve as the story editor.